Boston Baroque Announces 2023-2024 Season (Boston, MA.)
Boston Baroque
Announces 2023-2024 Season
Boston Baroque Opens 23-24 Season with All-Beethoven Program
Featuring a years-in-the making return to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with soloists Heidi Stober, Daniela Mack, William Burden, and Eric Owens.
PRESS RELEASE:
Boston Baroque opens its season with a return to Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 9 alongside his “Coriolan” Overture and “Elegiac Song.”
Performances will take place on Friday, October 13 at 8pm at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Saturday, October 14 at 8pm at GBH’s Calderwood Studio in Brighton, and Sunday, October 15 at 3pm at NEC’s Jordan Hall in Boston.
The Saturday evening performance will also be livestreamed on the global streaming platform IDAGIO, welcoming virtual audiences around the world alongside live studio audiences on site.
“When we first performed Beethoven's Ninth, it was one of the major milestones that showed how far period-instrument performance in America had come,” says Founding Music Director Martin Pearlman. “It's wonderful to return to this colossal work now to launch Boston Baroque's second half-century.”
Boston Baroque, North America’s first permanent baroque orchestra, will perform the beloved symphony on period instruments.
Last heard on the Boston Baroque stage in 2013—only one other time in its 50-year history—Beethoven’s final symphony is rarely performed on period instruments in modern times.
These performances give audiences the unique opportunity to hear Beethoven’s music as it was performed in his lifetime.
Four Metropolitan opera stars will grace the Boston Baroque stage as soloists, including soprano Heidi Stober, mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, tenor William Burden, and bass Soloman Howard.
Boston Baroque's renowned chorus and orchestra will bring the program to life under the baton of Founding Music Director Martin Pearlman.
BEETHOVEN’S “ODE TO JOY” SYMPHONY NO. 9
Friday, October 13, 2023 / 8:00pm
Sanders Theatre, Harvard University (Cambridge)
Saturday, October 14, 2023 / 8:00pm*
GBH Calderwood Studio (Brighton)
Sunday, October 15, 2023 / 3:00pm
NEC Jordan Hall (Boston)
Best known for its “Ode to Joy” movement, Beethoven’s final symphony was written years after his first eight and in the final years of his life.
Since its premiere in 1824, with Beethoven conducting even as he had become fully deaf at that point, the work has been applauded for its unprecedented nature.
From the first movement that places the listener into an imperceptible stream of sound, to the final movement’s first inclusion of the human voice and a dramatic narrative in a symphony, the Symphony No. 9 has become one of the most iconic musical works in the Western repertoire.
The program will begin with two other works by Beethoven - the “Coriolan” Overture and “Elegiac Song.”
Inspired by Heinrich von Collin’s play Coriolan - which in turn was based on one of Shakespeare’s less frequently performed tragedies, Coriolanus - the all-orchestral “Coriolan” overture was performed at the palace of Beethoven’s patron Prince Lobkowicz in 1807 before a production of von Collin’s play.
The music takes the listener on the tragic journey of the Roman General Coriolanus, who rebelled against Rome and was ultimately killed.
Beethoven’s “Elegiac Song” is also a rarely-heard gem from an interesting period of Beethoven’s life.
Composed in-between what is known as Beethoven’s “heroic” period but before his final years, the work reflects Beethoven’s sense of searching for a new musical language.
Performed with chorus and orchestra, this solemn song hints at the more abstract, introspective style of his later years.
*Performances streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days
OTHER UPCOMING BOSTON BAROQUE EVENTS
HANDEL’S "MESSIAH"
Saturday, December 2, 2023 / 7:30pm*
GBH Calderwood Studio (Brighton)
Sunday, December 3, 2023 / 3:00pm
NEC Jordan Hall (Boston)
*Performances streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days
"NEW YEAR'S CELEBRATION"
Music by Bach, Handel, Biber, and Boyce
Sunday, December 31, 2023 / 8:00pm*
GBH Calderwood Studio (Brighton)
Monday, January 1, 2024 / 3:00pm
Sanders Theatre, Harvard University (Cambridge)
*Performances streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days
VIVALDI’S "THE FOUR SEASONS"
HANDEL’S "SILETE VENTI"
Friday, March 15, 2024 / 8:00pm
NEC Jordan Hall (Boston)Saturday, March 16, 2024 / 8:00pm*
GBH Calderwood Studio (Brighton)
*Performances streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days
OPERA:
MOZART’S "DON GIOVANNI"
Thursday, April 25, 2024 / 7:30pm
Friday, April 26, 2024 / 7:30pm*
Sunday, April 28, 2024 / 3:00pm
The Huntington Theatre (Boston)
*Performances streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days
CHAMBER SERIES: "THE X-TET"
Music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Lusitano
Friday, November 3, 2023 / 7:30pm
Sunday, November 5, 2023 / 3:00pm
Lyman Estate (Waltham)
Music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Gyrowetz
Friday, February 16, 2024 / 7:30pm
Saturday, February 17, 2024 / 7:30pm
Lyman Estate (Waltham)
Music by Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Bologne
Thursday, May 30, 2024 / 7:30pm*
GBH Yawkey Theater
*Performances streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT BOSTON BAROQUE
The six-time GRAMMY®-nominated Boston Baroque is the first permanent Baroque orchestra established in North America and, according to Fanfare Magazine, is widely regarded as “one of the world’s premier period instrument bands."
The ensemble produces lively, emotionally charged, groundbreaking performances of Baroque and Classical works for today’s audiences performed on instruments and using performance techniques that reflect the eras in which the music was composed.
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